Ursula Fleming longed to be a concert pianist but couldn't conquer her nerves.

Her attempts to find a cure for her unsteady hands led her to a technique that has since helped thousands of people.

She was so impressed with the technique that she gave up her plans for a musical career to concentrate on complimentary medicine.

She went on to teach the pain control technique to thousands of sufferers and wrote a book about it, called Grasping the Nettle, a positive approach to pain technique.

She also dreamed of opening a training centre where she could pass on her knowledge to others.

However, in a cruel twist of fate, Ursula was struck down by leukaemia and died ten years ago, aged 62.

However, her sister, Anne Fleming, has now decided to re-publish the book to help others learn the methods Ursula used so successfully.

Anne, of South Street, Cuckfield, said her sister's life changed for ever after meeting Austrian Gertrud Heller.

"Ursula had gone to Gertrud because she had such nerves she couldn't play as a concert pianist. But she soon gave up on music and decided to learn to teach this technique."

Ursula, whose parents were both doctors, spent years further developing the technique and worked as a researcher in the academic surgery department at the Royal Free Hospital in London and with a hospice in Oxford.

She lectured to religious, sporting and military groups, appeared on radio and television, and was regarded as an expert in her field.

Her technique, known as the Fleming Method, relies on relaxed concentration to overcome pain.

Anne said: "She used a broomstick to demonstrate. She would get her students to lie on the floor and of course they would grumble about how uncomfortable it was.

"Then she would ask them to lie with a broomstick down the length of their spine. By the end of the session the hard floor would feel like a feather bed.

"She would also get them to walk around the room holding the broomstick upright on their fingertips. You can only do it if you are relaxed but concentrated."

Anne said there was nothing complicated about the technique which Ursula 'delivered straight from the shoulder'.

It could also be used to treat any form of pain or distress, from helping people deal with the fear of terminal cancer to calming frightened children and even helping couples inhibited by anxiety, conceive.

Anne said: "Ursula was years ahead of her time. The method was and still is unique.

"She was always complimentary and never alternative. She never stopped people from taking drugs if they were working but for some people they never worked. It is a very effective, non-invasive way of dealing with pain - it can't harm you."

The decision to re-print the book came from Ursula's daughter, Suella Darkins, who now lives in Italy.

Anne said: "She met someone who said without her mother's book, he would have committed suicide. That decided her to produce the book again."

The 2,000-copy re-run has been funded by the Albertus Magnus Trust and Anne's own tiny publishing company, Old Forge Press.

Anne is sending copies to every hospice in Britain and another 150 copies have been sold privately.

The first time it was published, Ursula's book, then published by Collins, sold around 10,000 copies. Anne has put together a manual for medical professionals. Tapes on the method are also available.

"What we would like is to eventually produce the book in different languages and distribute it round the world. Ultimately, it would a tremendous tribute to my sister if we would open the training centre she was planning before she died."

Grasping the Nettle, a positive approach to pain, costs £7.99. The ISBN number is 0-9513010-3-9. For more details contact Anne on 01444 412202.